DAIRY CATTLE AND THE DAIRY FARM 137 



free from the interruption of outsiders. It is obvious that the purpose 

 is most likely to be attained in a building devoted solely to the handling 

 of milk and especially designed therefor. 



The dairy house should be placed so as to save the milkers as many 

 steps as possible in going to and from the milk house with the milk. 

 Usually this puts the building about midway of the length of the barn. On 

 some farms the milkers instead of carrying the milk from each cow to the 

 milk house to weigh, sample and record it, take it for this purpose to a small 

 room within the barn and then dump it into a funnel connected by a line 

 of seamless "sanitary" piping with the milk house into which it flows 

 by gravity through the pipe. Such an arrangement is convenient and 

 labor-saving but its success depends almost wholly on the care that is 

 taken to keep the pipe clean and sterile. In dairies where the milk of 

 the individual cows is not weighed the milkers often pour the milk into 

 a large can, which when full is carried into the milk house. This can 

 should not be set in the stable proper for rilling but without in an adjoin- 

 ing room or some other convenient place where it will be protected from 

 the odors of the animals, from dust, flies and the attention of cats. 



In addition to being located conveniently to the barn, the milk 

 house should be situated where it will have good drainage both for its 

 own wastes and for the surface and ground water without, where it will 

 be free from dust and odor and where an abundant supply of pure water 

 is accessible. In a country of uneven topography it is usually not diffi- 

 cult to secure good drainage but on the prairies it often is so and consider- 

 able labor is required to make the house and the land immediately around 

 it dry. If the dairy house is on bare ground it will be dusty, consequently 

 the labor of keeping the milk and utensils clean will be greatly increased. 

 The ground around the dairy house should be turfed. The driveway to 

 the store-room should be run so as not to pass beneath the windows of 

 the milk room and should be oiled or paved if it is prone to get dusty. 

 Dust raised by automobiles and wagons will be troublesome if the dairy 

 house is not located a considerable distance from the highway. Odors are 

 usually easily avoided if care is taken not to put the milk house where it 

 gets them from the kitchen, hen houses, hog pens, latrines or manure piles. 

 Proximity to the last three of these is particularly objectionable for in ad- 

 dition to being a source of evil odors they attract or breed flies, making it 

 exceedingly difficult to keep the dairy house free from these filthy insects. 



An abundant supply of water in the dairy house is essential to clean- 

 liness and running water is all but indispensable, for a dairyman can ill 

 afford to spend his time toting water. Where there is a public water 

 supply it often can be piped to the dairy house; where there is none 

 water may be pumped by a windmill, hydraulic ram, or gasolene engine 

 to a reservoir or tank whence it will flow by gravity to the dairy house. 



Dairy 'houses are usually built in an inexpensive way; so in their 



